From 30 May to 2 June, UNOAU participated in the 2^nd AU workshop on the review of the AU Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) policy in Cairo, Egypt. Participants included officials from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and the AU Commission (AUC), represented by the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, and the AU High Representative for Silencing the Guns, Mohamed Ibn Chambas.

In his opening remarks, the Egyptian Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Organizations and Communities, Ambassador Ashraf Swelam, emphasized that the PCRD should mainstream peacebuilding across the conflict response continuum. He called on the review to go beyond the Peace-Development-Humanitarian Nexus, proposing the inclusion of Governance into the nexus.  Ambassador Ashraf further proposed that the PCRD policy should be renamed - from ‘post-conflict reconstruction and development’ to ‘peacebuilding and sustaining peace’ - to address the challenge of the stigma that persists around some countries being labelled as ‘conflict situation’ or ‘post-conflict situation’. The imperative of prevention was also echoed by the PAPS Commissioner, who noted the importance of the PCRD to prioritize the prevention of terrorism and violent extremism, including in the Sahel and Mozambique; he also noted current challenges in Sudan and Somalia. Commissioner Bankole Adeoye also underscored the criticality of partnerships and coordination for peacebuilding. Participants further highlighted that the review of the PCRD policy is timely, underscoring that it needed to be a forward-looking policy document and a reference tool for AU member states to draw lessons from. Additionally, there was emphasis on the revised PCRD policy to prioritize national ownership and the importance of harmonizing peacekeeping and prevention approaches to ensure that they are aligned towards one common purpose.